Reid, Inspector Edmund

[Chris]

In "The Man Who Hunted Jack the Ripper" (2009), Nick Connell and Stewart Evans discuss (on pp. 127-129) an exchange of letters between Edmund Reid and someone signing himself "Unofficial" in the correspondence column of the Morning Advertiser in March and April 1903. I thought people might find the full text of these letters interesting.

The correspondence was provoked by this comment in an article entitled "Science and Poison," which appeared on 20 March 1903:

[Chris]

A letter from "Unofficial" in response to this statement about Cream was published on 25 March:

[Chris]

On 30 March the newspaper published a letter from Reid contradicting the claims of "Unofficial":

[Chris]

"Unofficial" was quick to respond quoting his source. His letter appeared on 31 March:

[Chris]

Reid again responded, essentially by asking "Major Arthur who?" - a question which the editor felt obliged to answer when publishing the letter on 6 April:

[Chris]

But "Unofficial" appears to have had the last word on the subject, with his response which appeared on 8 April:

[Chris]

What particularly intrigued me about this is that fact that "Unofficial" obviously confused Griffiths's "police-constable in Mitre Court," who supposedly caught a glimpse of the Ripper, with PC Ernest Thompson, who discovered the body of Frances Coles in Swallow Gardens in 1891, because "Unofficial" refers to the PC as "since murdered" (Thompson had been murdered in 1900).

As Reid pointed out, Thompson did not in fact see anyone at the scene of the crime, but it was later to be claimed that he did by Frederick Wensley (1931), and Sir Basil Thomson (1935) not only repeated this but made exactly the same identification as "Unofficial," referring to "police constable Thompson, the one police officer who caught sight of the man in Mitre Court." And Robert Sagar (1905) seems to have been repeating the same story when, speaking of the murder of Eddowes, he mentioned a police officer meeting a man coming out of the "court," then whistling for assistance for other officers who pursued "retreating footsteps" - which again describes Thompson's actions at Swallow Gardens.

It would be interesting to know whether "Unofficial" was just a member of the public relying solely on Griffiths's account and jumping to his own false conclusions, or whether he might also have been privy to the same story that Sagar repeated two years later.

[Trevor Marriott]

Quotes

I came across this in my files. It may have been posted before.

I have no idea what the source of this is,but the content clearly puts more nails into the coffins of not only certain suspects, but goes someway to discredit the opinions of certain officials who have been held in high esteem by some.

[Bridewell]

Thanks for posting that, Trevor. The last sentence suggests that Reid didn't set much store by the evidence of Elizabeth Long, Israel Schwartz, Joseph Lawende or George Hutchinson who claimed to have seen, respectively, Chapman, Stride, Eddowes and Kelly with men likely to have been their killers.

[Tom_Wescott]

I believe what Trevor posted is a page from one of Stewart Evans' books. And to think he gets mad at Debs when she reproduces a few sentences from his book!

Yours truly,

Tom Wescott

[jmenges]

Yes, Tom.

Trevor's scan is a portion of page 237 from Scotland Yard Investigates by Evans and Rumbelow, copyright 2006.

Since he's left Casebook anyway, I don't see the harm in permanently banning him for violating Major Rule #3.

JM

[Cogidubnus]

What's one more act of professional cribbing between friends...

Dave

[jmenges]

Whereas many authors, like SPE, have collections in files, Trevor's collection appears to just be pages of other people's books in filing cabinets.

JM